Finally

The weather finally broke with warmer temps starting on Friday and it is supposed to continue through Tuesday before turning colder again. Probably every cyclist who has a blog will be writing the same thing, it sure is nice to feel the sun and warmer temperatures. The switch to daylight savings time came at the right time.

The warmer weather meant the snow melt and thawing roads turned the back road into something better left for mud boggers. I stuck to the pavement to avoid totally trashing the bike. I felt like I had wings, the pavement seemed to make the miles fly by on the mtb, at least compared to what I had been riding on all winter.

Friday was an easy ride and I ended up riding with a few other guys I know for part of it. Saturday was strength building doing big gear intervals for a total 3:15 ride time and 52 miles.

Today was my endurance day so I wanted to start early and get in around a 6 hour ride. I couldn't start as early as I wanted because I had to wait for the ice on the roads to start to melt. The melting snow from the previous day had formed frozen puddles or sheets of ice where the water running across the roads had frozen.

Even when I did finally start out I had to be careful since it was still below freezing but the sun was out, melting the ice. I did multiple laps at an industrial park, Chrysler HQ, and Oakland University before riding over to Stony Creek. There were a lot of cyclists out at Stony taking advantage of the weather. I managed to hold off some of the roadies but others just flew by me on their skinny tire bikes. I ran into some of our team members as well that were just getting started.

I ended up the day with right at 6 hours and 96 miles, averaging 16 mph. Not too bad for a fat tired, full suspension bike. Maybe not a lot of elevation change but the idea was to get the saddle time in. I know the last hour was the slowest as it was more up hill and into the wind. Of course, save the worst for last.